quiddity

Mark, why can't you make exactly the same argument about the 7 and the 8?

It's a matter of partnership agreement whether 3♦ is a help-suit game try. It might be better to use it as a try for 3NT, especially if the raise to 2♠ can be made with 3-card support.

Yes, that works. Duck the club at trick 2 to shut out the East hand. For midnight effect, you can finesse the card under the T and look annoyed when it loses.

No answers yet? Here's a hint: Justin's line drops RHO's singleton Q but it still goes down after the defenders continue to attack diamonds.

[hv=n=sk8xxh97xxdaxctxx&s=saqxhkjxxdkjxck8x]133|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv] The contract is 3NT; West is a passed hand, East has shown at least 5-5 in the minors with 4-9 points. Low diamond lead.

[hv=d=s&v=b&s=saq6hdaj973caqt76]133|100|Scoring: BAM 1♦ 1♠ P 2♦! 3♣ 3♥ P P ?[/hv] East's 2D was alerted as a transfer to hearts. What now?

Something is wrong with the diagram. Was East dealer?

Win SA and lead a low trump. If LHO plays low you have a guess; if he started with Hx, you can make an overtrick by playing the A, eliminating spades and diamonds, and throwing him in with a trump. If he started with KQx, you can make an overtrick by finessing the J followed by a similar endplay. Assuming you think it's possible that LHO made a vul. 2-level overcall with something like JTxx Kx x AQT9xx, it seems right to play for that and go up with the A on the first round. With KQx LHO could have prevented the chance of an overtrick by splitting his honors, and even if you go up with the ace you can still make the contract. So his low trump on the first round from KQx would have been a no-win play.

This looks like a misfit. I think I would have stopped in 3NT instead of supporting spades.

So why not double? I thought double would show almost exactly this type of hand (particularly Ax of spades and length in the minors).

Partner's double was not for penalties. My partner's double was for penalties, or at least describing a hand similar to my example. Support doubles or other doubles which say "please steal from me" are not my area of expertise, but if they were they would not be used at this level. As usual, when the opponents preempt you're more likely to hold a good hand with shortness in their suit rather than AJTx in their suit. What is your partner doing with 2335, 1345 etc and extra values?

Perhaps more blame should go to North's pass than to South's rebid. North has a weakish 4522 with a decent (soft) heart suit and South has promised 2-3 card support. Why not correct to 2H? A comparison hand: http://thegargoylechronicles.blogspot.com/...5.html#comments The author strongly prefers correcting to 2M with a much worse 5cM AND with the possibility that partner has a singleton spade. BTW, that blog is the bomb.

Isn't it also decent enough to worry about missing game? Or missing a nice 3-level penalty if they step out of line and partner has the right hand? I guess a sandwich preempt should promise some values, but this still seems heavy.

IMO, the big strike against DA is that if partner has the DK we will often have another chance (after winning SK) to switch to diamonds and still get the ruff. If partner doesn't have DK, he will usually need a side ace to give us a ruff and that seems highly unlikely given the bidding and our hand. edit: just realized gwnn already said this.. never mind.

Thanks for the comments! Here are the full hands: [hv=d=s&v=b&n=sk4ha642d953cak74&w=sat98h7dkqjt62cq5&e=sq7652hkt98d84c83&s=sj3hqj53da7cjt962]399|300|Scoring: MP P 1D X 1S 2H 2S 3H P P 3S P P P [/hv] Perhaps an anomaly, since partner's double is a bit off-shape, but they had one more trump than expected and still went down. Maybe double is right after all? Anyway, I was interested to hear the different takes on 3H; my feeling at the table was that it was competitive rather than invitational - that most hands with 4 hearts should bid 3H. Can't the truly invitational hand bid 3D? [hv=d=s&v=b&n=sk4ha642d953cak74&w=sat98h7dkqjt62cq5&e=sq7652hkt98d84c83&s=sj3hqj53da7cjt962]399|300|Scoring: MP P 1D X 1S 2H 2S 3H P P 3S P P P [/hv] Doh! [hv=d=s&v=b&n=sk4ha642d953cak74&w=sat98h7dkqjt62cq5&e=sq7652hkt98d84c83&s=sj3hqj53da7cjt962]399|300|Scoring: MP P 1D X 1S 2H 2S 3H P P 3S P P P [/hv] Yes, partner had the 2443 death hand. I regretted it.

[hv=d=s&v=b&s=sj3hqj53da7cjt962]133|100|Scoring: MP P 1♦ X 1♠ 2♥ 2♠ 3♥ P P 3♠ P P ? Do you agree with 2♥? What now? [/hv] [hv=d=s&v=b&s=sj3hqj53da7cjt962]133|100|Scoring: MP P 1♦ X 1♠ 2♥ 2♠ 3♥ P P 3♠ P P ? Do you agree with 2♥? What now? [/hv] [hv=d=s&v=b&s=sj3hqj53da7cjt962]133|100|Scoring: MP P 1♦ X 1♠ 2♥ 2♠ 3♥ P P 3♠ P P ? Do you agree with 2♥? What now? [/hv]

This is just a bit too scary for me, with the long spades behind me and a heart fit. 3H.

Pair with the most posts on BBO forums.

It seems likely that they would be the best performing team, doesn't it? Can you imagine asking professional tennis players to form their own teams and holding team trials for the Davis Cup? It's ridiculous.

1. small D 2. pass

Awesome - now I know who to thank for some of the more interesting system treatments.. :) Anyway, the system doesn't have much relevance to this hand except that 1C is limited. It sounds like this was mostly an issue with hand evaluation - I didn't think the south hand was a game-force opposite the limited club. What hand do you visualize for south's 3D free-bid?

I would pass; singleton ace, 1.5 QT, no majors, rebid problems, 2nd position... but it's really close to an opener. The minor suit tens are beautiful. I prefer 1C over 1D, to avoid misleading partner about shape.

I'm misunderstanding something. The suggestion was that North might pass instead of doubling, and the problem is that North does not have 15-17 balanced with 3+ clubs.

We briefly considered it in the post-mortem, but when north passes south will tend to play him for a balanced 15-17 and 3+ clubs so I guess there's a risk that 2C might be passed out if South has 3 clubs. I'm not sure how aggressive South should be when reopening with some length in their suit. BTW, we are playing a system based on Marshall Miles' Unbalanced Diamond here.

No agreement apart from generic competitive/responsive.